Holo ... Caustic

It was then I heard another scream. This was one was different .. this one was animal. This one was kaiila .. but I did not recognize it from any of our kaiila. Just then I saw the beast that went with the scream and it was as if he too were on fire for he seemed to move with and through the flames like nothing touched him ... like he was a part of it himself. The beast leapt within the circle we were trapped within and without thinking I jumped and reached for his mane even as he swept by .. as his energy hit me and tried to rip my arm out of the socket .. I used it to swing up just as I felt Beo grab my belt and shoulder and the great beast drug us both through the scorching flames.

For a moment there was nothing but the heat .. nothing but the sound and the burn on every hort of my body. My flesh screamed and then ... then there was coolness. The coolness of the night and it bit at me like a million tiny ice hinti. And I nearly cried for the pain of it as it swept over my flesh. I lost my grip on the mane of the kaiila and slid down to fall onto the cool blades of grass ... and nothing ever felt so good as that. I do not know how long I had held onto the beast .. or how far we had come. I only know that for those few moments there was nothing better than the moon-cooled feel of that grass against my burnt skin.

As my senses returned I looked around and Beo was gasping .. laying not far from me. Then my gaze turned to the huge beast that had drug us from the flames and there stood the ugliest .. meanest .. most depraved kaiila I had ever laid my eyes on.

Now when I say depraved .. I actually mean depraved. I had never seen a lascivious kaiila before .. but here stood one right in front of me. He was not black and he was not brown. As if he got the worst of both colors. His head was too large and too bulky. His eyes were not even .. as if some child had drew him and got the eyes just a little off center. It made me dizzy just to try to look at him strait on. His eyes were seeping some kind of yuck that matted the lashes and left dark circles beneath. He was mean .. cantankerous ... not worth the fur he was contained in. Speaking of his fur it was not silky and smooth and beautiful as it should be. It was mangy and threadbare ... missing great patches. He looked like the type of kaiila that would win a race by beating up all the other kaiila ... stealing their souls while he was at it. He would rape all the mares and then not be responsible for any of the foals. You would be walking innocently down the lane between the wagons and he would step out and expose himself and then slink away with wet suckling sniggers. He was just ... that kind of beast. Not one redeeming quality about him.

Well .. except one ... he had saved my life.